The high school I went to, Bronx Science, had a smaller version of the planetarium projector from the Hayden Planetarium. Interestingly, Neil deGrasse Tyson went there too.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS GOD

Walter Favreau pushes the moon around and darkens the sun—all in his day’s work at New York’s Hoyden Planetarium.

By Lester David

WALTER Favreau is the only man in the world who literally moves heaven and earth to get what he wants. He spins the sun like a yo-yo on a string, unhinges the stars and sends the planets whirling crazily through the solar system.

AMERICA’S only planetarium, a million-dollar project, was opened recently on an artificial island in Lake Michigan just outside Chicago.

A planetarium is a building in which points of light, representing stars and planets, are projected against a dome by means of illuminated stereoptican slides to show spectators the movements of the heavenly bodies. This is accomplished by a huge, scientifically accurate projection machine.

Intricate mechanisms at New York Planetarium show how celestial forces could burn, blast or freeze the world.

By HARRY SAMUELS

THREE times a day in five spectacular ways the earth “dies” in the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

First performed in 1939, the Planetarium’s sky drama was shut down by the war in 1941 and was not resumed until recently. The new “End of the World” show is considerably more vivid than its prewar predecessor because of added startling effects and more authentic background material worked out by the Planetarium technical and scientific staffs. The pictures and captions on the accompanying pages explain how these effects are obtained.